Reconsidering innovation to address sustainable development

Abstract

The world is being confronted by a multi-faceted systemic crisis. In addition to structural and ongoing changes such as climate change, increased pressure on renewable resources and population growth (still strong in Africa), the world must now contend with a severe economic crisis of unpredictable consequences, deepening poverty, shrinking export markets, tighter credit and cutbacks in development funding. In such a context, agriculture faces an uncertain future, particularly in some of the world’s regions, with the emergence of differentiated development models that have led to an increasingly fragile family agriculture and the simultaneous rise of a capitalist agriculture. Nevertheless, this systemic crisis may also provide new opportunities over the long term. It is leading to a break from the past and calling into question paradigms until now taken for granted. It has brought to the fore the vulnerability of agricultural and agrifood systems and highlighted the need for innovation to take advantage of new development models. At a time of great uncertainty, with shifting values and standards, our societies should show themselves to be creative by reinventing modes of production, processing and distribution of agricultural products with a long-term perspective that takes into account the territories and their peoples, putting the concept of sustainability at centre stage.